After this semester I’ll have spent six years as an undergrad - six friggin’ years, far too long for any normal person. Soon I’ll be receiving a baccalaureate mathematics degree. But I don’t suppose six years of punishment is enough for me.
(I remember, years ago, starting a thread to ask about how I could be better at math; I was a philosophy and economics double major at the time. I failed high school algebra twice, finally achieving a D in both mandatory courses. This will, perhaps, shine something of an odd light on my eventual diploma.
Let’s forget about my brief sojourn as a computer science major. I have some W-shaped scars to remind me.)
So. It’s economics for me. I won’t say where I’m probably going - it’s no MIT, I’ll admit, but the climate’s better - but I’ve just been offered an eighteen-thousand-dollar fellowship, with gratis tuition and health, meant for a first-year doctoral student with outstanding academic achievement. Frankly, for the first time maybe ever, I’m a little proud of myself. It won’t last. The hour. But it’s been a decent five minutes.
What should I expect? Am I making a terrible mistake? Should I hold out for a better school that’ll treat me worse? Is eleven years too long to be in university? Are economists, as a rule, as assholish as they are at my undergraduate school? (The ones I’ve met elsewhere have been quite nice, on the other hand.) Is my writing stilted enough that I should have stayed a philosophy major?